The device pertains to conveyors and more particularly those used in confined spaces such as dining tables or work benches.
Numerous re-circulating conveyors have been designed and used in the past to move articles. Most of these have used belts, storage bins, individual bowls, trays, or other carrier devices that restrict the size and shape of the articles being carried. Re-circulating conveyors usually involve large turning radii that tend to have a large unused space at the center, and/or carrier device shapes that do not maximize the surface area presented to articles being carried. In nearly all cases the gap between carrier devices must change as they traverse the conveyor path. Further, most are large and bulky and/or use multiple belts or other surfaces that allow small parts to be dropped while transferring loads from one conveyor section to another. Few provide a low friction means to support loads through the conveyor 180 degree turn-around sections, nor a means to reduce friction and provide smooth transition between conveyor sections by distributing load among several carrier devices. Very few include control circuits to prevent conflicting motion commands, chain or belt tensioning devices to compensate for dimension changes due to manufacturing tolerances, and/or clutch mechanisms that provide smooth starting. Also, many of these inventions are noisy and not of compatible décor for use in home or commercial dining applications.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,042,648 to Garvey presents a conveyor in a crescent chain configuration. Its drive chain must follow the same path as the center of the crescent shaped, load carrying plate. This arrangement will cause gap between plates to be larger in conveyor straight sections than in the non-linear sections. Without a mechanism to accommodate this changing gap, binding will occur at sharp turn sections. Further, its support mechanism is a U-shaped flange traveling in a horse-shoe shaped track in the straight sections. This will support travel in the clockwise direction, but in the counter clockwise direction the flange may bind or hang-up where the flange enters the track. The horse-shoe shaped track appears bulky, difficult to fabricate, and does not leave room for motor drive equipment to be mounted in a low height, small footprint housing. It is not obvious how load is supported in the turn-around sections, nor how load is smoothly transferred from the straight sections to the turn-around sections an vice-versa. Also no mechanism for motor drive equipment or equipment to maintain proper tension on the chain is presented.
Suggested Objects are Provided Here:
It would be desirable to provide a new and improved conveyor system which circumvents the limitations associated with the conveyor systems of the prior art.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved conveyor system which is well-suited for use in relatively small spaces, such as on a dining room table or upon a work bench.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such a system having a support surface which is adapted to move along a desired conveyor path and which is substantially continuous (i.e. gap-free) as a path is traced along the conveyor path.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide such a system wherein the support surface is adapted to move through a turn of relatively small radius.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide such a system wherein the support surface is provided by a train, or series, of carrier plates wherein each plate has a shape which cooperates with that of an adjacent plate in the train to reduce the likelihood of the creation of a sizable gap between any two sequential carrier plates in the train as the trains of plates move along the conveyor path.
A further object of the present invention is to provide such a conveyor system which includes gap plate attachments to its carrier plates which cover any gaps which may be present between two sequential carrier plates in the train as the train of carrier plates are moved either leftward or rightward turns along the conveyor path.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide such a conveyor system which includes inner and outer rails that guide objects of any shape around the conveyor path.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such a conveyor system which provides start, stop, and direction control from multiple locations
Still another object of the present invention is to provide such a conveyor system which provides an interlocking carrier plate configuration that distributes weight among several plates
A further object of the present invention is to provide such a conveyor system which is uncomplicated in structure, yet effective in operation, esthetically pleasing, and easily disassembled for maintenance or cleaning
A still further object of the present invention is to provide such a conveyor system which can be constructed as a stand alone, portable, table top unit as shown in FIG. 1 or integration into the construction of a table or bench as shown in FIG. 2. and is capable of varying the conveyer width, length, speed and load carrying capacity by changing the size and/or quantity of key components,